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    <title>Patterns for LocalDate values</title>
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    <h1>Patterns for LocalDate values</h1>
    <p>The <a href="../api/html/T_NodaTime_LocalDate.htm"><code>LocalDate</code></a> type supports the following patterns:</p>

<h2>Standard Patterns</h2>

<p>The following standard patterns are supported:</p>

<ul>
<li><p><code>d</code>: Short format pattern.<br />
This is the short date pattern as defined by the culture's <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.globalization.datetimeformatinfo.shortdatepattern.aspx"><code>DateTimeFormatInfo.ShortDatePattern</code></a> 
For example, in the invariant culture this is "dddd, dd MMMM yyyy".</p></li>
<li><p><code>D</code>: Long format pattern.<br />
This is the long date pattern as defined by the culture's <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.globalization.datetimeformatinfo.longdatepattern.aspx"><code>DateTimeFormatInfo.LongDatePattern</code></a> 
For example, in the invariant culture this is "MM/dd/yyyy".</p></li>
</ul>

<h2>Custom Patterns</h2>

<p>The following custom offset pattern characters are supported for local dates. See <a href="text.html#custom-patterns">custom pattern notes</a>
for general notes on custom patterns, including characters used for escaping and text literals.</p>

<p>For the meanings of "absolute" years and text handling, see later details.</p>

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <td>Character</td>
      <td>Meaning</td>
      <td>Example</td>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td><code>y</code> or <code>yy</code></td>
      <td>
        Two digit "absolute" year; a single <code>y</code> allows up to two digits to be parsed,
        but formats only one digit where possible.
      </td>
      <td>
        TBD
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><code>y</code> or <code>yy</code></td>
      <td>
        Three digit "absolute" year. This will parse up to five digits, but only format to as many as are
        required, with a minimum of three.
      </td>
      <td>
        TBD
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><code>yyyy</code> or <code>yyyyy</code></td>
      <td>
        The absolute year as either always-four or always-five digits.
      </td>
      <td>
        TBD
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><code>M</code> or <code>MM</code></td>
      <td>
        Month of year specified as a number. <code>MM</code> is zero-padded; <code>M</code> is not.
      </td>
      <td>
        TBD
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><code>MMM</code></td>
      <td>
        Abbreviated month name, parsed case-insensitively.
      </td>
      <td>
        TBD
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><code>MMMM</code></td>
      <td>
        Full month name, parsed case-insensitively.
      </td>
      <td>
        TBD
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><code>d</code> or <code>dd</code></td>
      <td>
        Day of month - <code>dd</code> is zero-padded; <code>d</code> is not.
      </td>
      <td>
        TBD
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><code>ddd</code></td>
      <td>
        Abbreviated day-of-week name, parsed case-insensitively. When parsing, the parsed day of week
        is validated against the computed date, but does not affect the calculations of that date.
      </td>
      <td>
        TBD
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><code>dddd</code></td>
      <td>
        Abbreviated day-of-week name, parsed case-insensitively. When parsing, the parsed day of week
        is validated against the computed date, but does not affect the calculations of that date.
      </td>
      <td>
        TBD
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><code>/</code></td>
      <td>
        The date separator for the format provider; slash in the invariant culture.
      </td>
      <td>en-US: <code>yyyy/MM/dd</code> => <code>2011/10/09</code><br />
          de-DE: <code>yyyy/MM/dd</code> => <code>2011.10.09</code></td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>

</table>

<h2>Year formats</h2>

<p>TBD - absolute vs era</p>

<p>Specifying negative absolute years.</p>

<p>Two-digit year handling</p>

<h2>Text sources</h2>

<p>TBD:
- Month names (and genitive forms)
- Day names
- Era names</p>

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